Trouble in Bosco
A minor detour Jason frowned. They were supposed to be on a mission, and here he was, laden down with packages packed sky high. He had to assume this was his stories biting him in the back. He had Vivian pose as his wife and he as her husband. Now he was stuck going shopping with her. Vivian seemed rather excited; it had been at least a few months since she had been able to relax. It was basically anyone's first time seeing Vivian wearing boots; all she normally wore was basically that clunky armour mixed with whatever she could find. Today Vivian was wearing cute clothes worn by high school girls. She looked the same age as him…, no, she may even look younger than him. She looked even more beautiful than usual. No, rather than looking beautiful, she looked cute. "I… I feel kinda embarrassed looking like this. ……Do I look weird today?" She asked Jason rather shyly. Jason eyed her with great care. "To be honest...yes." He said, placing the packages on a chair. "It's not a bad thing though. It's just a change of pace, I've never seen you look that that." He turned turned to what of the boxes. "You bought me a suit and a bowtie?" His stoic voice actually had a note of incredulity. Vivian's blushed increased even moreso to the point that she appeared as if she were on fire, before she looked at him with a 'are you serious?' expression plastered upon her face, attempting to forget about that comment- it was far too embarrassing to have people witness that she was blushing like a loon in public. "...What? I like bowties. Bowties are cool. And stop complaining; at least you're ginger." She managed to let out a somewhat awkward laugh. "...Plus, I can see that you'll look charming in them. I'm sure Wendy will agree as well, you know." "Speaking of which...." "Is it a fit?" Wendy walked out of the dressing room, arms wide flaunting a little golden dress held up by straps of brighter gold, embedded with several heart-patterns, with an easily flowing hem. She was also flaunting with gold and blue crosses, held by small bands, and standard brown boots. She did a little spin on her toes, obviously showing off for Jason. Jason gave her the same look he'd given Vivian, one of great care. "Of course it is, and it looks really well on you. Both of you look well with a change of clothes." This was obviously a compliment, convoluted as it was. Jason had paid specifically for that outfit, feeling the need to spoil the child. Hearing the praise, Wendy was delighted. Jason looked at the packages. "Have you paid for them then?" He looked at Vivian. Vivian nodded. "Of course. What do you think I am, some sort of cheapskate?" Jason didn't answer, waving his hands and the bags vanished. That magic didn't have a name, Jason simply referred to it as Vanishing Magic to save him time. "Well, ladies, we have a mission to start." He summoned Gehaburn to his side...and then stowed it away again due to the shrieks of people inside the store. "Maybe after we get outside?" Wendy suggested, smiling. Vivian couldn't help but facepalm at this; she snarked, "...Did you ever think that was a good idea, hm?" She glanced around; "Great, now we need to explain stuff to the people who have just crapped their pants..." "Better yet..." Jason hoisted them both over his shoulders in one fell swoop, a "Kya!" being issued from each of them. He made a wide run and leapt...straight out a window. The glass crashed and broke but it didn't affect either of them much. Jason landed on the nearest rooftop and slid across until he stopped, right near the edge of the roof. "Are we going to have to pay for that?" Wendy asked as Jason set them both down. Vivian scowled. "How dare you touch me like that! Why, I oughta..." ---- A member of the Magic Council reaches his hand to the floor and operates on the touch-type display that rose up from the floor silently. The holographic display again lit up the space above the bed, showing the photo of Vivian's face. "Vivian Starrkewolfe, 19 years old. Registered from Side 1 area 3's 'Eden'. No special positive or negative data on her, and no records of her taking part in political activities. She's one of the results of the Izanami project." The official gave an overview of what happened this past month. "To be one of the prototypes from the Izanami project, one has to gain the biometric authorization of the leader. In other words, the previous leader chose this girl to become the Dragon of Supremacy and died after that. I can only deduce that, so what happened that time…" Due to its nature, the records of the Dragon of Supremacy could not be easily erased after its logged it. There was a chance to destroy all the system, so the previous chairman must had his reason for focusing all their work on Vivian. The offical started to stroke his chin as he looks at what seems to be a girlish instead of a youthful face, but was suddenly startled by a snicker. Guran Doma let out the snicker as he watches the face of this girl that's projected in space. His wrinkled face was smiling. The official frowned in response, and Guran Doma muttered, "I see. So you don't know." and turned to stare at the official, who in turn inadvertently gulped his own saliva. "Don't you understand? She's the new hope. Mortis made the most suitable person the Dragon of Supremacy…" Guran Doma turned his eyes to look at the girl on the display and narrowed his eyes as if he's afraid of light. The boss of the Magic Council let out a kind grandfather's expression, and the official could only blink hard bewilderedly. "…It seems that Vritra will awaken soon." ---- "Dammit, how much longer!?" Vivian cried out, rather annoyed. They'd been walking for a while; and her feet were hurting. Jason sighed. "Please, stop fussing. We're running blind, we don't know where we going, only we need to find a dark guild. Where do you propose we look in a country like Bosco?" Vivian pouted again. "Geez louise. Maybe y'know, it's like Phantom Lord. They could have some big, scary ominous building parked right outside. Hell, it could be in plain sight..." though she had to admit, she couldn't see it either. Wendy frowned. "It would help if they gave us some large signal flare or something so we'd know where they were..." As soon as she said that, there was a large explosion halfway across town. Realizing that this was practically a calling card, Vivian's senses perked up slightly. "...What the fuuuuuuuuuu-" Her curse was cut off by her own mouth, not wanting the children to hear another word, as she grabbed the hands of her companions and leaped forward, heading to the epiccenter of the explosion. Jason almost hissed as she pulled him along, Wendy merely gasped. "You're dragging us along? Fine, play leader." Vivian didn't show any hesitation at doing what Jason said. Running to the center of town, she noticed a wounded woman, who seemed to be rather harmed by the explosion. She couldn't back down from helping somebody in trouble, so of course, the first thing she did was let go of Jason and Wendy and rush towards her, questioning in an extremely panicked tone, "...Hold on a sec!" she shouted to Wendy rather pushily, "Little help?" Jason sighed. "Vivian. Two things. One, step away from the woman, or your beautiful white hair may be stained red. Two, don't tell Wendy what to do, you know how she works, she'll probably heal the woman anyway." The woman in question was lying on the ground, her shoulders bleeding profusely and she looked to be on considerable pain. "P-please..." Wendy, feeling pity for the girl, gathered clean air and imbued it with her magic, working her healing. Vivian seemed to be rather enthralled by Jason's comment; though she did as he said and quickly scurried back from this woman- however, she still couldn't help but be worried at the state that this total stranger was in. "R-Right..." she meekly bowed. The wound was quickly patched up, the cells dividing and the skin patching up, until the wound was perfectly healed. The women sat up, moving her ebony hair out of her face. She was notably tan, and had wound, red eyes. Despite the fierce colour of the eyes, her voice was notably meek as she spoke. "T-thank you..." She panted, relieved to see the wound was healed. "It was nothing." Wendy said, smiling, and checking the wound once more to make sure her magic had done it's job. Vivian's senses perked up; she could've sworn that she smelt something fishy- but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Nevertheless, she remained focused on learning more about what happened; she couldn't help but be curious as a monkey about all this. "...Alright, what happened?" She wanted to shake the hell out of her while asking her all sorts of questions, but she didn't want to cause a scene. "There was an explosion..." She explained, and she looked on the verge of tears. "It was terrifying...and then four people came crashing through, boasting about...about how they were from the Dark Guild Crudelis!" Jason's eyes narrowed. "Crudelis...talk about a break." Vivian couldn't help but exclaim, "Well, that solves our problem. Ehehehe. Baddies these days just can't remain out of sights, can they? Well, thank you for that. Now, let's go." She immediately stopped herself before she ran off. Jason cleared his throat. "So...it seems we've locked right onto them. What idiots they are, for leaving themselves in our sights. Let's go." They quickly dashed off, leaving the woman behind them. She chuckled sinisterly, before removing her face partially, revealing skin as white as snow underneath, and golden eyes. The voice that spoke was far from meek, almost confident. "Well well well...another guild come to try and take us? Foolish children...your grave will be made here in Bosco." The Four of Cruelty And so, the three quickly ran to the other side of town; Vivian was still thinking about the kiss she'd shared with Jason beforehand- dammit, she wanted to get it off her mind so badly it wasn't funny! She had attempted to think of other things- but somehow they'd mutated back into her memories of that moment. However, as she closed her eyes and plugged her ears to continue to try and fail miserably to forget it, she managed to run into a pole head-first. "...Dammit!" she tumbled back like a soccer ball; her whole body stung with pain. Jason caught her instantly. He never noticed it when he jumped out of that window, but she was lighter than he expected. "Are you fine?" He didn't seem overly concerned, but the fact that was he asking was progress nonetheless. Wendy felt that familiar bitter feeling rising up. Vivian realized that she couldn't stop herself from going bright red like a bonfire. She felt rather uncomfortable in this situation; maybe it was best if she wore a hazmat suit or something when she was around him to prevent these incidents from occuring. "...Y-Yes. T-Thaaaaaaank you..." the 'a' was stressed due to constantly hiccuping on it- though Vivian quickly stood to her own two feet without any help, brushing herself off in an attempt to remain something resembling calm. "Excellent." Jason said briskly. His hand glowed as he summoned Gehaburn. "Now...duck." Wendy and Vivian looked at him puzzled. "What?" "Duck." He ordered simply and they complied just in time for bubbles to come shooting from behind the two of them. Jason raised his blade up, using the flat-side as a shield. Surprisingly, the force of the bubbles pushed him back, causing him to tread dirt. "Come out. You've already made your presence known." Jason said, stabbing his sword into the ground. Vivian couldn't help but remark, "...Wel, perfect timing, I guess." Quickly, she noticed a spiralling bullet of flame shooting towards her; suddenly, she grabbed the almost harmless projectile and suddenly consumed it; remarking, "...Blegh. Disgusting." A quartet of figures surrounded the trio- of all ages and statures; they honestly looked like a gang of generic villains from some sort of shonen manga. "Ay, lookie what we have 'ere!" One of them, speaking with a strong accent was a tall, strapping man with orange hair and green eyes, and carrying more canteens than anyone could assume was healthy, spoke up. Wendy and Vivian immediately inched back to Jason. The man reeked of alcohol. "Look at the lassie there. I think Oweneds found 'imself a new playmate, aye?" Jason growled as Wendy inched closer to him. As a rotund guy looking like he was practially a little kid lover floated down from the sky on a miniature tornado, Vivian couldn't help but remark, "Great. It looks like these guys specify in a certain area- alright, I'm calling the water girl. Wendy, you take the fat guy. Jason, deal with the fire guy..." she paused. "...Well, you don't have an element- it's my best guess. "....To think about it- it was rather odd that she was giving orders. Plus, what about the fourth person? ...CRASH! Everyone in the vicinity could only look in with surprised eyes as a certain squirrel demon young lady with short brown hair, a big curly brown tail, and hazel eyes, and squirrel ears appeared out of nowhere. She wore an orange fighter top showing half of her bosom, two tonfas, black strap panties with an orange skirt-like cloth, long black socks, and orange boots. "...The heaven, the earth, and a million squirrels call for me!" Vivian just applied her palm to her forehead in exasperation, sighing, "...Iris, what are you...?" This Iris glanced back, almost facefaulting. "...Bwhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!? They don't?" Jason's face was notably blank as he witnessed this new girl enter the scene. But he quickly composed himself, check to make sure Wendy wasn't shellshocked. He then turned his attention to Iris. "Vivian said your name was Iris. What, are you here to even the odds?" Iris grinned. "Of course!" she glared at the fat guy just standing there, absolutely confused. "Spooooooooooon!" Suddenly, she attempted to rush forwards towards him to knock his block off, only for- -Jason to grab her squirrel tail and squeeze it tightly. "No. We don't charge the enemy swinging like a madman." As Iris was yanked back; the mere sensation of Jason's hand gripping her large, bushy tail sent a sensual shock which resounded throughout her small body—her skin reddened significantly as her knees knocked towards each other rather suggestively; the squirrel demon let out a soft moan. "Ngh…Iyaaaaaaaaaaagh…!" Her cheeks were a flustered red as she closed her eyes, remarking, "…L-Let go…! Ehhh...!" Vivian shouted at Jason, "For the love of god, let go! Don't you know that grabbing a demon tightly in their most animalistic features is like…you know what…" Jason yanked her back a bit, completely unperturbed by her erotic reactions. "Iris, welcome to the group. But let's divvy this up as we should." Jason said, stepping forward. "I'll take the one clad in black." Wendy stepped up. "I'll take the larger one, like Vivian suggested. I think I can take him!" She was basing this purely on size, figuring her small size would be an advantage over someone so large. Vivian sized up the young girl who was her target- there was only about thirty meters separating the two. Vivian's body came ricocheting off. With this distance it didn't even take a few seconds for Vivian to approach her foe. She quickly stabbed at the young girl chest with her hand. Iris clenched her teeth and shot forward like a bullet, slamming her fist towards the Irish looking guy; Drill 'n Rock increased her power exponentially while she went barrelling towards him. The Irish man chuckled as he jumped back, leading Iris out of the area. The young girl slipped through Vivian like water, running easily. It seemed to be strategy, prevent the other from interfering. Jason beckoned the man in black to follow him, and they did, vanishing on the spot. Wendy gulped. "I guess that just leaves me and...this." Owened licked his lips, remarking, "My, my. Anyone in puberty tastes old and rotten. Now, hold on, my pretty. I need to whip out my- er, sewing kit!" He quickly pulled out a sailor suit from hammer space and attempted to waddle closer to Wendy. This certainly wasn't a good sign. The Sky Maiden Wendy quickly inhaled clean air, imbuing it with her magic. "Sky Dragon's Roar!" She thought the attack name as she expelled a massive invisible blast of wind towards Owened, tearing up the ground as it traveled. Owened pouted as he surprisingly quickly flipped out of the way- many jaws were dropped as he managed to stand to his feet once again. "...You're a feisty one." his voice was full of eerie pleasantness as he suddenly released several blades of wind towards his target without a moment's notice, shredding the air itself as they homed in on Wendy's small figure. However, this was Wendy's element, and she was more attuned to it than other mages. She could feel the course of the wind, even get a lock on it's scent. Smiling, she immediately drew the shredding wind in, reducing it to base air and swallowed it. "Bleugh..." She rubbed her tongue for a second. "That wind tasted...awful." Owened's jaw dropped in disbelief- he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "...More than just a pretty face...! So cute, I feel like I could die a happy man right here!" Damn, that guy was creepy. In a single boud, Owened got his portly butt to leap towards Wendy, with a drill of air surrounding his fist. There was hopefully very little chance she could consume it if she wasn't given time to react. Wendy had more of a brain than to try and consume wind directly attached to someone's body. Besides, the wind he conjured was so disgusting, she'd have to get Jason to give her a tonic later. "Sky Dragon's Wings!" Wendy wrapped her entire body in air, using it as a form of propulsion to get into the air, effectively dodging the man's punch, before landing neatly on the ground, making sure to keep her skirt down. She began to glow blue again, and recited an incantation. "O swift wind that dashes through the heavens!.... VERNIER!" She became immersed in blue light, vanishing on the spot and appearing close to Owened, her speed having increased. Her arms became enveloped in wind. "Sky Dragon's Wing Attack!" She released the wind from her arms in the form of a crushing whirlwind attack. Owened's eyes widened; he could do nothing except get hit by this attack- WHAM! He could've sworn that he was hit in the gut by an anvil- his large, portly body was sent tumbling across the landscape by this single blow until he barely managed to catch himself and retort rather hastily with a serial of vaccuum boomerangs that shot towards Wendy. He laughed, "Just you wait...! As soon as I wear you out, I'll tie you with a big red ribbon and take you home!" Wendy shot him a glare, the first time the girl had glared at anyone. She leaned back, the boomerangs passing over her as she consumed them replenishing her magic supply. "You aren't taking me anywhere. I'm staying with Jason forever, no one takes me anywhere!" She shot forward, her fist covered in wind. "Sky Dragon's Shredding Fist!" She shot her arm and fist forward, aiming at his bulbous gut. Close as she was, and wide as this portion of the body was, a chance of hitting would be very high. "...Rgh!" Owened's voice was deep and in pain- the fat idiot was sent crashing across the ground again. He couldn't believe it- it took so much ease to obtain his other maidens- though they weren't too powerful compared to her. It was hard to imagine -at least in his eyes- that he was losing so horribly. Suddenly, he declared, "Gale Force!" and released a powerful, hypercompressed ball of oxygen which shot at Wendy at incredible speeds. It was strange that he didn't pick up what was happening. Wendy raised her hands, destroyed the ball of air instantly. "Wind spells don't work on the Sky Dragon. Now, just go away!" She inhaled once again, but compressed the air, making it harder. "Sky Dragon's Bullet!" She released a faster, but weaker version of the Sky Dragon's Roar, a bullet of air meant to rip a hole in the body. Jason had decided she should learn it. It wasn't possible that he could dodge the move. BOOM! Sky Dragon's Bullet just tore straight through him in a split-second, ripping open a large hole in his body. He couldn't say a word- of course, his organs had mostly been obliterated from the strike. After a few seconds, Owened swayed back and forth before his rotund body collapsed face first onto the ground, blood spraying everywhere. There was no need to check if he had died or not. Wendy slumped to the ground, panting. She was tired but...she'd won, and that would be something to tell Jason. Gunslinger vs the Ice Girl Iris eyed Leim off; her keen eyes quickly attempted to analyze his weaknesses. Light on her feet, the squirrel girl paced around him rather nonchalantly, prepared to strike at any moment should the moment arise. "Alright...3...2...1..." she kept faking him out by pretending to rush forward, waiting for him to deliever the first strike. "Sláinte is táinte." Laim tapped his clover, glowing gold. He sidestepped, tripping Iris as she shot past him. He opened a canteen and took a long draft from it, and wiped his mouth. "Come now, lassie, you can do better 'in that." This movement caused Iris to lose her bearings and tumble to the ground, eyes widened in absolute shock. Iris squealed, "K-Kyaa!" as she slid face-first upon the pavement. Managing to use her bushy tail as propulsion, Iris once again leapt to her feet, before, with her supreme strength, she threw away the rocks surrounding her and burrowed into the ground with Drill 'n Rock. After a moment's notice, she burst through the ground, spinning wildly like a top in the hopes of nailing him. He swerved and then suddenly backflipped, dodging it easily. Talk about lucky. "Why don't we introduce ourselves, child?" He asked, taking another swig of the Guinness inside the canteen. "Me name is Laim. I come from a small country where there are farms and pubs as far as the eye could see. And sheep. Many sheep. I in particularly was the town drunk, my country's greatest honor." Iris couldn't help but pull a 'what the shit' face at this remark. "...Is he Irish?" Such a facepalm worthy comment. "Well, well! While being the town drunk is the greatest honour, then being the top of the litter is my greatest achievement." She focused on his legs and leapt forward, attempting to knock him off his feet with her tail. He jumped and whipped out a pistol. "That's right lassie!" He pulled the trigger, shooting two simple bullets. Just plain bullets. Quickly, Iris spun around and batted back the two projectiles with her tail. Without a moment's notice, Iris hopped into the air, before descending like a meteor with her leg spinning due to Drill 'n Rock's effects- if she were to hit, then surely, it'd be critical. Laim dodged once more, jumping back as Iris hit the ground, sadly not running. The man was full of golden luck today. He took a swing of Guinness again, and raised his gun at her eye. "Time to give ye purple rose." Pulling the trigger, he fired a beam of what seemed like sunlight straight from his gun. Iris suddenly focused. *Ka-chick* she felt something inside of her moving -Organic Link Magic- as if it were a natural reaction, she declared, "O swift wind that dashes through the heavens!.... 'VERNIER!'" BANG! She became surrounded by a magical aura around her feet and quickly rushed around, straight behind Laim and muttered, "Ice Make: Sword!" manifesting a rather...cool...blade, she thrust forward with all her might, aiming to pierce her foe's back. He swerved to the left, looking a little punch drunk, and grinned. "Dea-ach ní maith go leor!" Apparently, that was his native language and he was gloating. He raised his gun, before drawing an additional pistol. "Impact Rail!" From his guns charged magical energy, and he quickly released several continuous spherical bursts of magical energy towards the girl. Iris was blown back by the vicious onslaught of blasts that battered her lithe body; her small figure was sent crashing across the landscape until she caught herself.'' "That luck he has can't always be good luck. I guess that every milisecond it changes into all sorts of luck- an infinite variable, just like in math."'' She was surprised she knew math. All she had to do was wait for the right opening. And what better way to do that than to just stall for time. Iris launched herself forward, curled up like a cannonball in attempt to impact into him and ricochet off like a pinball. He swerved to the left, and then spun on the spot, swaying where he stood. "It's magically delicious!" No one knew where that came from, but he tapped the clover on his clothes again. "Sláinte is táinte." He glowed gold and charged, not even tripping over his own feet as he pulled out his pistols, firing multiple shots, particularly bullets that seemed to crackle with electricity. Iris nimbly evaded these bullets as she closed in even faster- it was impossible to determine whether she just had naturally high speed or she was quickly stopping, dodging, then assuming the ball formation repeated. Upon reaching Laim, she declared rather melodramatically, "But can you see why kids love cinnamon toast crunch?!" as her fist shot towards him at insane speed. "Are you drunk too, lassie!?" He cried, pulling the trigger repeatedly and laughing like a madman. "C'mon, stay still, one of these shots'll blow yer bleedin' arm off!" His Spark Shot was his weapon of choice at this moment, and, erratic as it was, his luck was on and one of the bullets had to hit, especially with her as close as she was. BANG! Iris was blasted straight in the shoulder by one of Laim's bullets; she let out a sharp cry from the bottom of her throat as she almost doubled over in pain, "Graaagh...! Damn it all..." She couldn't move her left arm- great, it was her good arm as well. This left her a sitting duck for a few moments. "'Tis appears you're already down. Stay still, tha's a good lass." He raised his gun again, his eyes rather unfocused. "Back in me 'ome country, we never let wounded animals live more than a few secon's. You're more animal than human, ain'tcha?" His judgement was blurred as he took another swig of Guinness, and his eyes began to glow blue. He pressed the clover, and recited the incantation twice more. This, however, was a grave mistake. "Railgun." He pulled the trigger, releasing a shot of pure electricity. However, it missed Iris by feet, hitting a mirror which seemed to absorb and reflect it...right back at him. The shot hit his hand, destroying his gun and his shooting hand as he let out a slurred scream of pain. This was the perfect chance. Of course, Iris would take it; it was only half a second to cross the boundary between her and Laim as she darted forward like a bullet, before she unleashed a spiralling uppercut, clocking Laim right in the jaw- sending him crashing to the ground, flat on his back. "...Don't call me an animal, you bigoted asshole!" Iris snapped rather furiously at the man who was thoroughly defeated. Laim chuckled as he collapsed. "You...fight pretty well...lassie. But there's no way...in hell...you'll be able to take our Master..." He let out another contemptuous chuckle. "I...need...a...pint of Guinness." He fell unconscious. END